The philosophy and practice of Alchemy extends across a number of cultures and has been documented in many languages for at least the last millennia. In western cultures it formed the basis of modern chemistry pioneering the first processes to extract base metals and distil them into pure forms. The common mythology surrounding the western alchemist was a person who could change lead into gold in an act of transmutation.

For this work I have taken the concept of transmutation- or entering life as one thing and leaving as another- and applied it in paint and other materials.I have used scraps of material left over from other uses- or the lead- and from that formed a work of art - if you like - the gold.The value of the ‘gold’ is in the eye of the beholder.The oily colours of red and black as the backdrop for this process refer to the more organic and philosophical aspects of alchemy, life being the red, death being black, and metal forms representing immortality